This year has been thankfully moist so far, helping to alleviate concerns about drought conditions. But a century ago, people were more worried about washing away.
The summer of 1921 was one of the the five wettest on record, according to the National Weather Service. For June-August, Colorado Springs recorded 13.05 inches of rain, well above 7.51-inch all-time average going back to 1895.
And a large percentage of that record rain fell in the Arkansas River Basin June 2-5. Cheyenne Cañon took a major hit, with a flood washing out the road and damaging bridges. But that destruction was overshadowed by the massive blow sustained by our neighbors to the south.
In a 1922 report by the U.S. Department of the Interior investigating the flood found that it had resulted from a collision between a low pressure system several states to the north and a high pressure system over Arizona, creating a circling movement that drew the storm from the northeast.
“South of Pikes Peak the from range and line of foothills turn sharply westward for 20 miles and then near Canon City swing quickly to the south and southeast and keep that course for 20 miles. This reentrant angle in the general line of the front range had a marked influence on the storm, causing it to concentrate at that point,” the authors found. “This circular motion cause the clouds to impinge against the side of the mountains so violently that they rose quickly and precipitated their moisture with great rapidity.”
The National Weather Bureau reported rainfall totals for June 2-6 of 6.9 inches in Florence, 6.24 inches in Pueblo, 5.18 inches in Colorado Springs, 5.91 inches in Lake Moraine, and 7.05 inches at the U.S. Forest Service Fremont Experiment Station near Manitou Springs off the present day Barr Trail. Most of that water funneled down Fountain Creek heading south to where it merges with the Arkansas River in Pueblo.
The Great Flood in Pueblo still ranks as one of the deadliest disasters in Colorado history, claiming at least 500 lives — an official tally was never determined as many bodies washed downstream were never recovered. The Arkansas River spilled over its banks and engulfed what was at the time Colorado’s second largest city. The surging water knocked two passenger trains off the tracks, washed out every bridge between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, and destroyed more than 600 homes. During the height of the flood, fertilizer stored in lumberyards caught fire and sent flaming rafts drifting atop more than 10 feet of water through what had been Pueblo’s business district.
In the aftermath, the city spent years re-building, re-directing the river and constructing a mammoth flood control system. Pueblo was never the same. Documenting the centennial of the flood, Rocky Mountain PBS released a moving remembering the disaster (https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/rocky-mountain-pbs/great-pueblo-flood-100-year-anniversary/) and the state’s El Pueblo Museum mounted an exhibit called “High Water Marks” that runs through October (https://www.historycolorado.org/exhibit/high-water-marks).
Back in Colorado Springs, the storm damage was not nearly as devastating, but still significant. Sand Creek was 15 feet deep, Fountain Creek overflowed and Shook’s Run became a river with water flooding several blocks in the northwestern part of town. South Nevada Avenue was completely flooded.
In Cheyenne Cañon, the inundation hit the re-set button on the park’s infrastructure. The park had long been a major attraction, with many visitors riding Winfield Scott Stratton’s trolley along Cheyenne Creek up to the park entrance. Some enjoyed the amenities of the 20-acre Stratton Park at the junction of North and South Cheyenne creeks. Others hiked up North Cheyenne Cañon to the Bruin Inn and Helen Hunt Falls.
The first of many bridges built with local rock had been constructed in 1914. Three years later, the trail up the canon had been converted to a one-way road with limited automobile access.
When the 1921 flood hit, the seven-year-old road was washed out.
Among those visiting the park at the time was a group 50 students from Pueblo’s Centennial High School who were celebrating the recent end of their school year with a “one-day” picnic. In “Pueblo Lore,” a 2011 collection of flood accounts compiled by the Pueblo County Historical Society, Arla Aschermann wrote that: “They had left town Friday morning in automobiles to spend the day at Bruin Inn, a resort at the top of Cheyenne Cañon. Soon after their arrival at the Inn a rain storm set in that lasted well into the next day. The small creek running down the mountainside near the Inn soon became a raging torrent carrying with it large boulders which made crossing it almost impossible.
“By evening, a report came that a bridge below had gone out. Nevertheless, several of the party attempted a descent but turned back. There was nothing to do but to stay the night at the Inn, which was not prepared for such an occasion. The girls and the chaperones were supplied with cushions from the cars and the boys spent the night as best they could on hard board benches.
“The next morning they found the pathway down impassable, so decided to try to get to Colorado Springs and the train by walking down the Cripple Creek Shortline tracks [now Gold Camp Road]. They made it, but not without a few thrills. At one point a huge landslide rushed down without warning, almost on top of the party. It filled one of the railroad passes for approximately 150 feet at a depth of about 20 feet.
“Just before reaching the Springs they had to clamber down a long, steep, wet sand band and wade through the flooded mountain stream. They finally reached the Dixieland, a summer resort in Stratton Park and learned for the first time definite news regarding the situation in Pueblo, although they had received news of a flood warning the night before when they had tried to reach their parents by phone.
“The party at last arrived in Colorado Springs, where they found they could not go on because of washouts on the auto highway and the railroads.”
The marooned picnickers were well taken care of by citizens of the Springs until they were able to return home by train six days after their one-day excursion began.
The destruction those students had witnessed in the Cheyenne Cañon was soon repaired. Within a year, the city began re-building the road as the two-lane route we still enjoy today.
The 1921 flood in Cheyenne Cañon is now a distant memory, marked only by a fleeting mention in the signage describing the park’s stone bridges adjacent to the main parking lot at the Starsmore Center.
In 1925, Stratton Park was sold and subdivided into housing lots. But the Bruin Inn continued to draw visitors until it was destroyed by fire in 1957, leaving only a stone sign and The Cub, a log structure originally built as a hay barn. It served as a curio shop and was converted into a visitors’ center. In 2012 it was re-built with funds raised by the Friends of Cheyenne Cañon, including donations through the Indy Gives Campaign, profits from Bristol Brewery’s Cheyenne Cañon Piñon Nut Brown Ale, and grants from The Anschutz Foundation, among others.